cold night
by xotashxo
Summary: Lily just wants to read. So when the common room is so crowded that she can't concentrate, she finds herself atop the astronomy tower, freezing and reflecting on new friendships.


Lily's hands were freezing. All she'd wanted to do was curl up with a good book and ignored the world around her, but the common room had been so busy with everyone trying to keep warm that she couldn't concentrate. Therefore, she'd made the, admittedly stupid, decision to go up to the astronomy tower and read there, all the while forgetting about the icy winds that came when it started snowing. That had landed her in her current position, attempting to read while her hands slowly froze.

She'd get frostbite if she stayed up here any longer, but she didn't have anywhere else to go. The common room was way too crowded, and made her feel claustrophobic. Plus, Black had been in a stupid mood, and was annoying her to no end, which hadn't happened in a while. She'd actually consider him a friend, which was weird to think about. If you had told 14 year old Lily Evans that she would be friends with Sirius Black, and James Potter too, when she was 17, she would have laughed in your face, and probably hexed you too. But it was true, she had formed friendships with the two trouble makers.

If you wanted to find the point where their friendship began, she supposed you would have to go back to the middle of their sixth year, when Sirius began dating Marlene. Sirius would start hanging around them more, often bringing his group of friends along with him. Every time that happened, Lily would either only talk to Dorcas and Remus, or she would find some excuse to leave. Sirius made Marley happy, yes, but that didn't mean she had to suffer in his presence.

But, as Lily's best friend, Marley really wanted her to get on with Sirius. So Lily made a promise to try with Sirius. And it wasn't all that bad, once they'd gotten past his ego. He was actually alright, and they did end up having things in common. As it turned out, they became fast friends, and Marley was happy, though it was obvious that Potter was not. He would always frown and turn away whenever Sirius and Lily interacted, as though it hurt him on some deeper level. And as Lily found out, it did.

One Friday night, a couple of weeks after she had become friends with Sirius, she was doing her prefect rounds with Remus when he told her why Potter was so upset by her friendship with Sirius.  
 ** _"It's because you're friends with everyone except him. He can understand you being friends with me, because we have similar interests, and Peter because he's so nice, but he can't understand why you would be friends with Sirius and still ignore him. Sirius and James are practically brothers, they are so alike so I guess it stung when you became fast friends with his brother but you still won't give him the time of day."_**

Lily had to admit, Remus had a point. She wasn't being fair, she had never really been fair to Potter. She'd never given him a fair chance. So she decided to rectify that.

As luck would have it, she came across him the next day by the lake, sitting alone against the trunk of the tree. She took a deep breath, and sat down beside him. He gave her a startled look, obviously wondering why she was there.  
 ** _"Hi. I, erm, I realised, well, Remus, he helped me realise, that, erm, I haven't exactly been fair to you. I gave Sirius a chance at Marlene's request, when I have long disliked the both of you as a pair. Upon realising that Sirius was not the person I thought he was, I should have given you a chance as well, but I didn't and I stuck to my prejudices against you, all the while forgetting those I had against Black. I was wrong to do that, and I would like to have a fresh start and get to know the James Potter that is a good friend, I'd like to replace the old, biased view I had upon you, if you'd give me that chance."  
He looked at her, a little dumstruck to begin with, then nodded his head.  
"Yeah, Lily, I'd like that a lot."_**  
They spent the rest of that afternoon sat against that tree, just talking about everything and nothing at all, and Lily came to realise that she had in fact been wrong about James Potter, just as she had been wrong about Sirius Black, and how she had definitely been wrong about one Severus Snape.

* * *

"Evans? What're you doing up here? You must be freezing!"

Speak of the devil, or rather think of the devil, and he shall appear, she thought to herself and James Potter materialised on the astronomy tower before her. He was wearing a coat and a massive hoodie, which Lily realised, in hindsight, would have been a good idea for her to do as well.

"I wanted to read, but the common room was too crowded. Now though, I feel like I'm too cold to move."

James sighed, then chuckled slightly, as he came and sat down beside her. He shrugged off his coat then handed it to her.

"What are you doing?"  
"You're cold, I'm wearing many layers, so you're going to take my coat to warm yourself up."  
"But-" "Just take the damn coat Lily." "Fine."

She shrugged his coat on, ignoring how it made her instantly feel warm and cozy, and how it smelled like firewood.

"So, what's this book that's so much more important to you than your health?"  
She glared at him, then showed him her book, battered and worn from being read so many times.

"Jane Eyre?"  
"Its one of my favourites, along with Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. They're muggle books. Classics. Everyone's heard of them in the muggle world, even if you haven't read them."  
"But if you've already read it, why was it so important that you read it again in the freezing cold?"  
"It makes me feel at home. And my sister has told me that I'm not invited to her wedding, so I needed something to make me feel better. That just so happens to be this book."

"Wait, your sister hasn't invited you to her wedding?"  
Lily looked down at her hands, then raised her head to look James in the eye and nodded. He looked furious, angrier than Lily had been, though Lily had been more sad than angry.

"That's not right. Who wouldn't want Lily Evans at their wedding? Oh wait I know why she didn't invited you."  
"Why?" Lily asked resignedly.  
"Because you're so beautiful you would have shown her up. You want to be the most beautiful woman at your own wedding, but you can't do that if compared to your sister you look like a toad."

That answer was so unexpected that Lily burst out laughing.  
"You've never even met my sister! How do you know I'm prettier?"  
"Because you're Lily Evans. You're the most beautiful girl I've ever met, and no one is ever going to top you."

Lily looked down abashedly at her hands in her lap.  
"James Potter, when did you become so suave?"  
"I've always been suave, Lily darling, it has just taken you a long time to notice."  
Lily giggled slightly.

"On the subject of me being suave and handsome-"  
"I never said you were handsome."  
"- this weekend is Hogsmeade weekend. Would you like to go with me?

"As in a date?"  
"As in a date. Yes, I, James Potter, am asking you, Lily Evans, on a date to Hogsmeade this weekend. We can do lots of sickeningly cute couple stuff, such as go to Madam Puddifoot's, and make ourselves sick at the sight of all the other sickeningly cute couples."  
Lily laughed heartily, at the image of James Potter in Madam Puddifoot's.

"In all seriousness though Lily, I am asking you out. On a date. Its fine if you don't want to, but I would like you to say yes."

"I'll have to think about it."  
"Yeah, sure, take however long you need."  
"Done. Yes, I'll go with you."

She didn't think she'd ever seen him smile as largely or brightly before.

Maybe it was a good thing the common room was so crowded that night.


End file.
